Last month, I acquired a Wii and we have a lovely relationship. We decided to take our relationship to another level by opening it up.

My Wii Number is 3111 1958 3901 6912. Feel free to share yours in the comments, or if you prefer some anonymity, use my contact form.

Here’s a timewaster for all you handheld gaming geeks out there: Handheld Remakes, web-based versions of the portable electronic games you remember from your childhood (and some you don’t). They even have a Speak & Spell. (link via Kotaku)

Blizzard, the company behind the popular game World of Warcraft (WoW) has denied several groups of LGBT gamers to form LGBT-friendly guilds for the game. Blizzard’s reasoning points to a section of its Terms of Service policy labeled “Harassment - Sexual Orientation”:

This category includes both clear and masked language which insultingly refers to any aspect of sexual orientation pertaining to themselves or other players.

At the outset, it appears they want players to be respectful of each other. The guilds in question, however, are trying to promote safe spaces for LGBT gamers to play WoW without fear of harassment from other players.

“… Which insultingly refers….” They’re not insulting themselves.

LGBT WoW players have two choices here: they can either continue to lobby Blizzard to allow their GLBT-friendly guilds in, or they can let their wallets speak for them and not renew their membership.

As much as I agree that it’s Blizzard’s game and their rules, their interpretation of the policy is flawed. These LGBT guilds aren’t looking to demean others. They just want to play a game and actually enjoy it. What’s the harm in that?

Over the weekend, the mate bought me a refurbished PlayStation 2 plus two games. Yes, it took me long enough to get it — blah, blah, blah. This is the first new (to me) console system I received in about 15 years.

In the late ’80s and early ’90s, I was an avid gamer and, admittedly, a Nintendo loyalist. I owned their three major platforms of the era: the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the Super NES, and the Game Boy.

I also found myself to be the owner of a rather uncomfortable affliction, which I called “Nintendo Thumb” at the time. (I now call it “Gamer’s Thumb Syndrome (GTS),” as it’s obviously not a Nintendo-specific problem. But as I said, I was a Nintendo loyalist then.)

GTS is the soreness that develops as a result of using a video game controller for extended periods of time, particularly directional pads and other small, poorly designed buttons.

Using the NES controller, I only experienced GTS on the left thumb. The red A and B buttons on the right side were concave and therefore distributed pressure to more of my right thumb’s surface, reducing the chance that a minute spot would become sore and/or potentially calloused.

In the very early ’90s, someone came up with a potential solution: padding for your thumbs. To that end, Hot Gloves were invented. Hot Gloves were fingerless (except for the thumb), day-glo colored gloves with extra padding in the thumbs. I received a pair of these prior to my appearance on the short-lived game show Video Power; they were a decidedly bright shade of neon green.

I couldn’t really say if they worked well or not. The gloves I got were a bit small for my chunky hands, and I think I gave them to my cousin as a souvenir. He was in the audience for my taping.

So, now I’m once again in the market for something that will relive my symptoms of GTS. Sadly, I don’t think they make hot gloves anymore, much less in my size.